Garment bags have become quite a popular method of transporting clothing while traveling. Garment bags are typically large flexible envelope-like luggage pieces with inner and outer fabric walls and perhaps with fabric gussets or extensions connecting the opposed edges of the front and back walls to give the garment bag extra packing ability. Because of the size of such garment bags and for convenience of the airline traveler, many garment bags become "checked" luggage. This usually requires that the shoulder strap, which is used to conveniently carry the garment bag in its folded or suitcase-like configuration, be removed from the outside of the garment bag before it can be checked. If the shoulder strap is not removed, it can very often become entangled in the baggage handling machinery. If this happens, the shoulder strap can be damaged or, depending on what breaks first, the garment bag itself can be harmed.
The usual approach to this shoulder strap problem is to make the shoulder straps very easily removable, for example by the use of metal buckles, snaps, etc. However, buckles and the like increase the weight as well as the possibility that the shoulder strap assembly will become detached and lost, or will fail, either as checked baggage or while being carried.